It is hoped that after reading this article on fatty acids that you will begin to understand the proper role of fats in your diet. Fat is not a four letter word to be feared and avoided but to be understood and utilized in proper amounts and configurations so that the body can function the way it was designed to function. We have altered and misused fats for economic and commercial reasons causing a wide variety of health problems that can easily be avoided. We have taken the time to make sure that there is a good balance of the proper essential fatty-acids in the Ama-amA raw nutrition bars so that they can complement the other natural ingredients present giving you optimum benefits from proper nutrition.
Our good health relies upon the basic needs of fresh air, clean water, sunshine, exercise and a common sense balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Balance in life again is key. The balance of the macronutrients in the Ama-amA raw nutrition bar is a 40%-30%-30% configuration. At first glance many individuals find the 30% fat level offensive and fear that by eating the bar they will immediately begin to gain weight or begin to experience negative changes in their cholesterol levels. To the contrary, the proper balance of the macronutrients and the proper balance of the fats provides a delightful option to the over processed protein and or energy bars currently in the market. When key items are out of balance in our dietary uptake either in excess or in a scarcity the results will have a negative influence on our health. Even apparently simple things as to whether the food has been processed or there in a proper balance of macro/micro nutrients and fats has an effect on the probability of maintaining good health.
Our diet has changed significantly since our cave-dwelling ancestors inhabited the earth. Yet, studies of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle have shown innate understandings of the body’s need for a balanced diet. When you are out of balance you feel the effects by being tired/achy lacklustered, out of focus and or unmotivated, all early warning symptoms that something is wrong that needs your attention before the situation gets worse and it becomes an ailment that needs to be treated. Unfortunately most of us find that there are readily available medications or stimulants that can compensate or mask for those early warning signals given to us by our bodies and chose to ignore the root cause and plow ahead not expecting the inevitable to ever happen. Even when the inevitable happens we are surprised and look to modern medicine to step in and quickly cure the situation. Even the smallest imbalance can have a chain effect that will cause illness to set in. This is where we gain even greater persuasion to understand the importance of essential fatty acids (EFAs).
With a lifestyle and dietary habits associated with fast food and convenience foods, the general public has consumed a diet rich in a wide variety of fats. A common reaction then is to quickly and totally eliminate all or the majority of fat in the diet. The elimination of fats is equally detrimental as to an excess. The problem lies in the type of fat we ingest too much saturated fat - known as the bad fats - the type that clogs arteries and raises cholesterol levels.
The diet of our ancestors included a good balance of essential fatty acids (EFA). Essential fatty acids (EFA) are grouped into two families, the omega-6 EFAs and the omega-3 EFAs. The omega groups are considered the good fats or known as the polyunsaturated fats. The omega-6 fatty acids are found in corn, safflower, sunflower, canola and soybean oils. Omega-3 EFAs are found in flaxseeds and flaxseed oil along with fish such as salmon, herring, trout, sardines and albacore tuna. Ground flaxseed and flaxseed oil provides a natural and concentrated level of omega-3 EFAs.
Fats are probably the single most important nutrient we neglect and although they only account for 10% of the 100 essential listed nutrients, they are responsible for the success of those other 90% of your essential nutrients. Good fat regulates hormones. Bad fats destroy your hormones. Vitamins require fats. Minerals require fats. Even oxygen is dependent of essential fats... We are unwittingly eating bad fats instead of good fats because someone at the food manufacturing plant and commercial food chain decided it would save them and you a few dollars.
Flaxseed is also loaded with alpha-linolenic acid. Remember this is the brain of the omega-3 fatty acid molecule and assists in maximizing the benefits of nutritious foods. Most foods have far less omega-3 properties than what is found in flaxseed. Flaxseed is one of the key ingredients in the Ama-amA raw nutrition bars.
What Are Fatty Acids, Anyway?
There are twenty different needed fatty acids in your body They are all made from combinations of two critical and essential fatty acids called linoleic acid and linolenic acid. These two fatty acids are essential. You must get them from the foods you eat because your body cannot manufacture them. Thus, essential fatty acids are the building blocks for all the other essential fats in your body.
Essential fatty acids are necessary to make cell membranes and for many of the important hormones and other chemical messengers that tell your body what to do.
Another name for linoleic fatty acid family is omega-6 fatty acids. The linolenic fatty acids are often called omega-3 fatty acids. The names come from the way the molecules are strung together.
Omega-3 and Omega-6 essential fatty acids are especially important for making prostaglandins in your body. Prostaglandins are hormone-like substances that regulate many activities in your body including inflammation, pain, and swelling (some cause swelling and others relieve it). They also play a role in controlling your blood pressure, your heart, your kidneys, your digestive system, and body temperature. They are important for allergic reactions, blood clotting and making other hormones.
Fatty acids are also natural blood thinners; they can prevent blood clots, which can lead to heart attack and stroke. Essential fatty acids contain natural anti-inflammatory compounds that can relive the symptoms of arthritis and autoimmune diseases. In addition, a diet low in essential fatty acids could result in skin problems, such as dandruff, eczema, splitting nails and dull brittle hair.
Fatty acids influence the structure of the cells lining the intestinal tract, as well as the "villi" through which absorption of nutrients takes place. They increase the thickness and surface area of the digestive-absorptive cells that line the inside of our intestine. This results in more effective digestion, better absorption of nutrients, less absorption of allergens, and better health.
More importantly, numerous studies have shown that compounds found in essential fatty acids can block tumor formation in animals, and test tube studies have documented that omega-3 fatty acids can inhibit the growth of human breast cancer cells.
Your brain is actually 60 percent fat - and DHA (an Omega-3 essential fatty acid) is the most abundant fat in your brain. It's also the most abundant fat in breast milk, since babies need it to nourish their growing brains and eye development. This Omega-3 fat seems to be important mostly for connecting brain cells to each other and making sure the transmission of brain signals get through right. It is also found in high concentration in the retina of the eye.
Low levels of this Omega-3 fatty acid have been linked to an increase in dementia, mood changes, memory loss, and visual problems. In a Swedish study, elderly patients with Alzheimer's disease were found to have lower levels of this than healthy older people. Studies done at Purdue University showed that children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder had lower levels of these essential fatty acids.
Here's The Difference Between Saturated and Unsaturated Fats
Let's look at some other kinds of fats. If the fatty acid has no double bonds, it is a saturated fat. These tend to be solid at room temperature, and in people, most saturated fatty acids cause the blood cholesterol to increase. Unsaturated fatty acids have one or more double bonds. Polyunsaturated fatty acids have three or more double bonds. The unsaturated and polyunsaturated are generally less likely to raise the cholesterol in humans. The unsaturated are more liquid at room temperature, while the polyunsaturated fats are definitely liquid at room temperature.
The length of the fatty acid chain -- how many carbons are strung together -- will help determine whether a fatty acid is solid or liquid. Shorter chains tend to be more liquid. For example, acetic acid is a short fatty acid with only two carbons. It's found in vinegar. Butter has much butyric acid, which is a four-carbon fatty acid. Much longer fatty acids, with 16 and 18 carbons, are found in beef and pork, and are relatively solid. Fish oils are 20 to 24 carbons long. These are very long chains, yet tend to be liquid because they're highly unsaturated -- they have many double bonds.
As the chain gets longer, or as it gets more unsaturated, it is more likely to go rancid. Remember the bacon drippings your mother saved in a can? Once they cooled, they turned relatively firm, and could sit out for months. They were solid at room temperature, and didn't go rancid because they were highly saturated. Fish oil is highly polyunsaturated and goes rancid quickly unless a preservative is used. In fact, all fatty acids in the dog's food need to be protected from going rancid. Rancid fats can make dogs very sick. Preservatives, such as vitamin E, BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin, work to protect the fatty acids.
New Research Looks Inside Cells (Eicosanoids)
The ability of the diet to influence body fat composition is well known in poultry, pigs and people. If you add omega-3 fatty acids to the diet, it shows up in the fat and the cell membranes. How quickly? That's a function of how much is circulating in the bloodstream, and how fast the cells are being remodeled. Some cells, which are quicker, pick up the omega-3 fatty acids faster. Intestinal cells, for example, take about two weeks from feeding before omega-3s show up. It's thought that skin cells take 6 to 8 weeks. This becomes important because of the impact omega-3s and omega-6s have on inflammation. Omega-6 fatty acids (such as linoleic acid) tend to promote inflammation, while omega-3s are less inflammatory.
Failure to provide essential omega-6 fatty acids in the diet results in poor growth, failure of sexual maturation, weight loss, poor wound healing, increased susceptibility to infections, hair loss and scaly dermatitis. The roles of essential fatty acids in the skin and cell membranes have been the focus of most research on fatty acid function. In skin, linoleic acid is essential for maintenance of the skin's permeability barrier, and arachidonic acid is an important regulator of epidermal proliferation. Animals with essential fatty acid deficiency develop dry, scaly skin with increased transepidermal water losses and epidermal hyperplasia and hyperkeratosis. The coat becomes dull and brittle, leading to alopecia, and abnormalities in the lipid film lead to bacterial infection and pruritis.
Cell membranes consist of a bilayer of phospholipids and cholesterol with embedded proteins that act as receptors, transporters and enzymes. The phospholipid fatty acid composition determines the physical and functional properties of cell membranes and has important implications for cell integrity and growth, inflammation and immunity.
The 20-carbon polyunsaturated fatty acids found in cell membrane phospholipids are precursors of the eicosanoids (eicosa is Greek for twenty). These compounds include the prostaglandins, thromboxanes, leukotrienes and prostacyclins, and perform a number of key physiological functions. The eicosanoids are formed when physical and chemical insults result in the cleavage of the polyunsaturated fatty acids, through the action of phospholipases, and subsequent oxygenation by local oxygenase enzymes.
Biologic functions of eicosanoids
Control of vascular permeability, tone and blood pressure
Chemotaxis, adhesion and degranulation of leucocytes
Regulation of the immune system
Control of platelet aggregation
Regulation of cell division and differentiation
Initiation of parturition and acceleration of luteolysis
Gastric acid secretion, gastrointestinal motility
Renal blood flow and sodium excretion
Bronchoconstriction/bronchodilation
Regulation of neurotransmission and neuromuscular activity
Regulation of body temperature
The type of eicosanoids produced, and hence the body's responses are determined by:
Cell type stimulated; chief cell types are platelets, leucocytes and endothelial cells
Which of the oxygenase enzymes is used; cyclo-oxygenase favours arachidonic acid, lipoxygenase favours eicosapentanoic acid
The availability of substrate 20-carbon polyunsaturated fatty acids in the cell membrane.
Eicosanoids derived from omega-6 fatty acids (arachidonic and dihomo-g-linolenic acid) are generally pro-inflammatory,
pro-aggregatory, and immuno-active. In contrast, eicosanoids produced from omega-3 fatty acids (eicosapentanoic acid) have little or no inflammatory activity, and act to modulate platelet aggregation and immune-reactivity.
Manipulation of the fatty acid composition of cell membranes can theoretically modify the inflammatory, immune and
aggregatory responses of tissues. This concept provides the basis for the use of omega-3 fatty acids as therapeutic agents.
Key points
Both omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids must be supplied in the diet
In the skin, omega-6 fatty acids are required for maintenance of the lipid permeability barrier and regulation of epidermal proliferation
In cell membranes, both series of polyunsaturated fatty acids are precursors of the eicosanoids, which are important modulators of tissue responses and body functions
The fatty acid composition of membrane phospholipids affects the physical and functional properties of cell membranes, including the production of eicosanoids
Inflammation -- What's Really Going On?
Let's take a look at what goes on when skin gets inflamed. Inflammation is a cell's response to some kind of insult, either physical or chemical. The insult could be a scrape or a reaction to something like a mosquito bite or fleabite. Inflammation is simply the cell's defense mechanism. One of the cell's reactions is to produce compounds that attempt to protect it and some of its neighbors. Those compounds are made from fatty acids and are called eicosanoids. The eicosanoids that are made from omega-6s attract many white blood cells to the site, and produce much of the pain and itching associated with the mosquito bite. Platelets collect in an attempt to stop bleeding. The omega-6s are very pro-aggregatory -- they cause the coagulation or sticking together of the platelets.
The visible signs of inflammation are redness, swelling, heat, and pain, all in varying degrees. We've all had those symptoms from our different bites and scrapes. If you've ever wondered why an injury feels hot, here's your answer: Some of the heat difference is due to the eicosanoids causing the blood vessels to dilate, which lets plenty of blood come pumping through. All that blood brings warmth to the site. Some inflammation is good, and a natural response. But sometimes the body can get out of hand with its reactions. In the case of hot spots, the inflammation causes the dog to lick and scratch, which causes more inflammation. This self-perpetuates into a vicious cycle of more self-trauma and inflammation.
Allergies are another situation where the immune system goofs up. The immune system senses an invader when it shouldn't and starts the inflammatory process going. In actuality, there's no reason why the body should react to pollen or ingredients in the dog's food. Eicosanoids are, in part, responsible for the allergic reaction.
While the omega-6s produce eicosanoids that encourage inflammation, the omega-3s produce eicosanoids that cause much less inflammation. Some of the eicosanoids from the omega-3s are just less potent than those from the omega-6s. But some are also anti-aggregatory.
That means they'd prefer that the platelets in the blood not stick together. This is fine, as long as you don't go overboard with the omega-3s. People in Greenland, who have a diet heavy in omega-3s from deep-sea fish and marine mammals, also bleed longer than people elsewhere. That's because the omega-3s don't help the platelets coagulate.
What It All Means
The bottom line is that if there are more omega-3 fatty acids in the cells than omega-6s, there may be fewer symptoms of inflammation such as pain and itching. By influencing the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids in the cell membrane, a blend of eicosanoids will be produced, with a reduction in the symptoms of inflammation. This ratio can be changed by changing the dog's diet, since as we said before, when it comes to omega-3s and omega-6s, you are what you eat.
Some inflammation is necessary because it's a defensive mechanism, so you don't want to eliminate the omega-6s. Anyway, the omega-6 linoleic acid is necessary to maintain moisture in skin cells. But if we put the right proportion of omega-6s to omega-3s in the diet, it will end up properly proportioned in the cell membranes. That means we can increase the amount of eicosanoids that help reduce inflammation.
Omega-3 fatty acids may also influence the way the coat looks. But overall, they have more of a role in controlling inflammation, not preventing it. By modifying the body's response, we can help relieve the itching of a dog with allergies. By helping the skin react in a more controlled fashion, we can avoid hot spots and hair loss from allergy-caused licking. We may even be able to reduce the allergy problems of dogs who are troubled by flea bites, although this has not yet been demonstrated scientifically.
Influencing The Ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3
Finding Balance -- The Alpha and the Omega
Understanding the difference between the omega-6 and the omega-3 fatty acid is very important to know. It is more than just the difference in their numbers that should concern you.
Omega-6 fatty acids (found in vegetable oils with high proportions of linolenic acid) are best used by the body in a range of anywhere from a 4:1 to a 1:1 proportion with the omega-3 fatty acids. We need both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Yet, an excess of omega-6 fatty acids can have dire consequences. Many scientists believe that a major reason for the high incidence of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and some forms of cancer is the extreme imbalance between our intake of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.
The parent compound in the omega-3 fatty acid is called alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). It is this compound that serves as the “computer” or brain for the omega-3 fatty acid in determining how it will best maximize the body’s functioning.
Our ancestors evolved on a diet with a 1:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids. Dietary changes over the last few centuries have changed this ratio anywhere from 20:1 to 25:1. This is clearly an equation for trouble, and today’s chronic health problems obviously exemplify this concern. The ratio of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in the Ama-amA raw nutrition bar is close to the 4 to 1 ratio.
One of the primary reasons we ingest too much of the omega-6 fatty acid groups in our diet is the mass use of vegetable oils. This practice is so far-reaching that practically every fried food and snack food available has been cooked in soybean, corn, sunflower or canola oil. These oils are usually processed by hydrogenation. The raw grape seed oil used in the Ama-Ama products is not hydrogentated, not heated in any way and has itself a good ratio of the 6 and 3 fatty acids. This changes their molecular structure so they are basically good for frying foods at a high temperature and providing a lengthy shelf-life in the grocery store. Unfortunately, these molecular properties in the omega-6 fatty acids promote inflammation, blood clotting and tumor growth.
The omega-3 fatty acids act entirely opposite. But, when the omega-6 fatty acids are disproportionately higher, the omega-3 fatty acids cannot compete with the omega-6 activity. When in balance, they work in concert, making sure for every action there is a reaction, helping to maintain stability in the body.
When the omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids maintain a healthy balance; they effectively become clearinghouses or message centers to the rest of the body to:
Alert the immune system to go into action
Signal the blood vessels to either widen or narrow
Tell blood platelets to clot or not by sticking together or separating
Regulate inflammation
Formulate neural networks for brain activity in learning, memory processes and mood regulation
Trouble is brewed when one fatty acid overpowers another. Clearly, the data shows we need to seriously increase omega-3 fatty acids in our diets. Omega-3 fatty acid deficiencies are increasingly prevalent with young children. A Purdue University study showed that children low in omega-3 essential fatty acids are significantly more likely to be hyperactive, have learning disorders and to display behavioral problems.
In the general public, studies have linked omega-3 deficiencies to chronic health problems of diabetes, cancer, arthritis, inflammatory diseases, depression, heart disease, hypertension, memory problems, weight gain and some allergies and skin conditions.
Researchers believe 60% of Americans are deficient in omega-3 fatty acids and approximately 20% of those have so little that test methods would not be able to detect even a trace in their blood.
Finding a Food With A Good Ratio
Since supplementation isn't a good option, the only other choice is to try and maintain a diet where the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio are predetermined. This is difficult, since most manufacturers haven't caught on to the need to monitor the ratio.
In addition, the test to determine the ratio is not an easy one, and most food companies and independent test labs don't have the equipment to do it. (Very few companies that make food for people have the equipment. The best way to make sure that your ratios are correct is to have a quality assurance program that is able to determine that the raw materials utilized in the recipes are what they say they are. Fresh ingredients with certifications in place will assure that the end product contains the anticipated nutritional values.
For now, you can make some educated guesses based on ingredients. If the diet has safflower oil or corn oil in it, it's likely to be high in the omega-6 linoleic acid. There should be fish oil or fishmeal to provide balancing omega-3s. In fact, seeing fish oil, fishmeal or flax in the ingredients is the best clue you have in finding a diet that might have a good balance of fatty acids.
by Albin Dittli
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